Tui

Dougiamas

I am an Electronic Musician based in Perth, Australia, specialising in Video Game music and sound design.

My degree in Electronic Music and Sound Design at the University of Western Australia taught me the joy of composing for video games. I have a strong grounding in music theory – as well as a technical proficiency in DAWs, coding and middleware. Backed by this skillset, I love creating interesting, effective audio implementations that make players feel.

Growing up I was always immersed in either a book or a video game. I understand the deeply personal connections and experiences forged through gameplay and aim to strengthen these in my soundscapes.

Raised by an opera singer and a programmer, I must begrudgingly admit that we do, in fact, turn into our parents.

Photo credit: Matt Galligan

Projects

Theodore tells the story of Theo through the perspective of his dog. Playing as each dog Theo has across his life, players watch him grow up – assisting him, keeping him safe, and most importantly being his ever-loyal companion.

Starting with very little coding experience, creating Theodore in it’s entirety has provided me skills in all aspects of game audio integration. Having full control of the game, I am creating complex player/audio interactions to deepen the emotional touch-points of the narrative.

Theodore is still under development.

I redesigned and implemented the music and sound effects for the Unity sample game The Explorer. All of the audio has been composed or constructed by me, and implemented through FMOD and custom C# scripting.

The audio is generative, changing and adapting to gameplay. It provides extra feedback to players through interacting with enemy hit points, player locations and timelines to determine the tone, mood and presence of each element.

Carefully designed sound effects build the world, immersing players in it’s alien landscapes. Sound effects adapt as players traverse the map, adjusting their echo and pitch in accordance with surroundings.

Stripping the audio from the original Limbo trailer, I overlaid an entirely new soundtrack and sound effects. Each element is tailored to create suspense, and fit the tone of the game.

I combined layers of self-recorded and downloaded sound files to create engaging, satisfying sound effects, that both integrate into the games world, and provide additional depth.